ALBANY — The state’s top Republican is calling on Gov. Cuomo to put a stop to the “plague” of pay-to-play contracting that he says is wreaking havoc on the Empire State’s economy.

State GOP chairman Nick Langworthy painted Cuomo as out-of-touch and anti-business on Tuesday as he questioned the appointment of U.S. News & World Report executive chairman Eric Gertler as the next president of Empire State Development. He is also the nephew of former Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman.

Advertisement

“It won’t matter who you appoint to head economic development, until we eradicate Cuomo’s corrosive pay-to-play culture and worst in the nation business climate, New York will continue to suffer,” Langworthy said. “Gertler certainly has his work cut out for him.

“New York’s horrendous business climate and high taxes make it a completely unattractive location for us to do business,” he added.

The critique comes a day after the Democratic governor nominated Gertler to replace Howard Zemsky as the leader of the agency overseeing marketing, economic development incentive programs and other big money projects meant to generate jobs and boost the state’s economy.

Langworthy knocked Gertler, Cuomo and the Democratic-led Legislature as overly city-centric before ticking off a laundry list of troubled upstate projects including a taxpayer-subsidized Tesla plant in Buffalo and a failed Syracuse film studio that he described as examples of bad investments and bait-and-switch initiatives.

The former Erie County GOP chairman cited the 2016 “Buffalo Billion” corruption scandal that resulted in the convictions of former top Cuomo aide Joe Percoco, real estate developers, a high-ranking SUNY official and others as a prime reason for change.

“Cuomo has created an insidious culture that has wasted billions and billions of dollars which I don’t think any of us understand at this point,” he said. “He put our state government up for sale to the highest bidder. And, without sweeping changes, Eric Gertler’s appointment as the head of economic development is simply rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.”

Related Gallery

A decade in pictures: Iconic stories, photos and covers of the 2010s

Senior Cuomo adviser Rich Azzopardi balked at the Republican’s claims, took a jab at Rep. Chris Collins (R-Buffalo) – currently under indictment for insider trading, and accused Langworthy of recycling old accusations and complaints made by his predecessor.

“If that hypocrite wants to fight corruption how about doing something about his own congressman, indicted Wall Street fraudster Chris Collins?" Azzopardi said. "Ed Cox’s cynical dirty tricks didn’t work under Ed Cox and they’re even sadder under Trump’s newest New York mouthpiece.”